Do The Sunnis Want to Negotiate? (Part II)

Iraq rebels say they will only negotiate with US

Iraqi calling himself Abdel Rahman Abu Khula said his movement, a group of former Baath party officials and army officers known as the Islamic Army, would not meet the Iraqi government.

In reality, we only negotiate with the ruling power in
Iraq and that is the occupier," he said. "Today it is us and the Americans who are controlling the situation in Iraq.

The Americans have now decided to talk with us due to the escalation of our heroic deeds and the development of our explosives technology for use against their vehicles and bases.

There have been repeated rumours about contacts between the Iraqi government or US forces and the more nationalist elements of the insurgency, but no US official has ever confirmed talks with armed Baathists.

Abu Khula was at pains to distance his group, which is made up of largely secular former regime elements, from Islamist insurgent outfits such as Al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna, which are known for attacks targeting civilians. claiming that Baathists and Saddamists are often wrongfully blamed for atrocities, he said,

The brothers in Al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna use explosions as part of their strategies.

We do not target Iraqis, even their animals. We only target those with links to the foreigners and against Iraqis. We chop off their heads.

The leaders of many of the Sunni Arab tribes which met on Sunday also criticized Al-Qaeda and other religious groups for provoking divisions in the resistance and attacking members of their tribes.

In the past three years of insurgency against US-led forces, rifts have often appeared between elements of the resistance made up of the regime's former security apparatus and religiously-minded groups linked to Al-Qaeda. These disputes have occasionally broken out into open conflict between the two arms of the insurgency -- something US military commanders are privately encouraged by.

In the western province of Al-Anbar, the hostility to Al-Qaeda linked groups erupted into a full scale tribal onslaught called the Anbar Awakening, which was hailed by the government.

A meeting of 500 tribal chiefs and representatives featured self-declared former Baath leaders who were less concerned with fighting Al-Qaeda than restoring their deposed president. Abu Bassem, who said he was a Baath leader, said:

This gathering is to unify the Arab tribes in the face of the occupation and its agents and to struggle against those who would divide the Iraqi people.

Supporters waved portraits of Saddam and called for his release, calling him the "legitimate" president. Saddam himself appealed for the insurgency to be "just and fair" to the Iraqi people, in a note delivered by his lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi revealed on Monday:

Resistance against the invaders is a right and a duty. Do not forget that your goal is to liberate your country from the invaders and their followers and is not a settling of accounts outside this goal.

AFP